Sometimes Being Thankful Can Make The Difference..

An incident over the weekend prompted me to reflect upon how often do we feel thankful for the blessings that we have each day… and I’d like to share it with all of you.

Over the weekend, we went to Katong for the infamous Katong Laksa and to visit the Catholic Store near the Church of the Holy Family to buy a new Crucifix, some books, etc. After that, we stumbled upon this tempting “Temptations” (the name of the outlet) along East Coast Road. So, we decided to check it out. The place is quite nice… squeakily clean, pleasant greeting staff and of course, tempting cakes and pastries.. We ordered some cakes and a pot of tea as our afternoon delight treat.

While having tea, Isaiah dropped a piece of his cake on the pristine floor of the café and I immediately picked it up and highlighted it to the waiter (and apologize, of course), saying, “I’m sorry. My son dropped a piece of cake on the floor. I picked it up but I guess you need to clean it with a wet cloth later.” Then, he gave me an annoyed look, acknowledged it with an artificially polite ‘OK’ before walking away.

A while later, Isaiah dropped another piece of cake on the floor again. And again, I picked it up and feeling embarrassed, I approach another waiter (a Caucasian kid) to inform him that he might want to use a wet cloth to clean it up later.

To my pleasant surprise, the second waiter smiled and thanked me for (a) picking up the cake and (b) for telling him about the “invisible” mess (that sweet sticky residue) on the floor. He immediately took a wet mop to clean the affected area. He said, “Thank you, sir for bringing this to our attention. Else, we would not have known and ants would have made their way here.”

I was pleasantly surprised. Not because he bothered to clean up the “invisible” mess as requested by me but because he thanked me for giving him more “trouble”. Indeed, most people would have responded like the first waiter.. shun away at being asked to do something unwelcoming and viewing my feedback as a “chore”. The second waiter's response was impressionable not because he only proceed to perform that unwelcoming task diligently, but he did so with such a lot of grace and he was even thankful that this chore that was brought to his attention.

You see, many patrons would not even care to do anything if they dropped a piece of cake on the floor. They would leave the onus of the cleaning to the service staff of the café. Most service staff would shun upon it as a chore (some may even pretend that they didn’t see it, heheh) and respond to it with a negative emotion (like the first waiter). Thus, the first surprise I had with second waiter’s response was that he was thankful for me picking it up (saving him the trouble of having to do that). The second surprise came when he was actually thankful for me telling him about the “invisible” mess that I left behind that would have otherwise attract ants if unattended. That appreciation and being thankful motivated him to perform the chore with such delight and grace.

The second waiter’s attitude impressed me and inspired me to remind myself that we should always be thankful for everything we have… even if it meant that we would have to undertake undesirable, daunting and additional chores in life… Being thankful (in this case) is the difference on how we can turn a daunting chore into a graceful deed…